We begin thinking and asking questions about God beginning at a very young age, especially if we have been participants in religious education from that time in our lives. The Jewish people is known as Israel, "the God wrestlers," because belief in God and the maintenance of faith is not always easy. We learned last year in Humash that doubt in and rebellion against faith goes back as far as the beginning of our 4000 years. To become a fully mature adult Jew, one must continually wrestle with his or her belief and eventually come to an understanding of what one believes about God. Using a popular movie from the 1970's entitled Oh, God , this unit will undertake an exploration of our own questions about God, combined with our studies of the central prayer of the High Holy Day prayer services: ונתנה תוקף.
Lesson 1
WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT GOD
Each student will write their own statement of personal theology. There are no right or wrong answers in this personal statement. It is an opportunity for you to think seriously about your God beliefs and to record them on paper. We will be referring back to this written statement several times over the course of the unit, which spans the entire school year. If you need inspiration for how to start or for what to say, you may use the questions below. By no means is it an exhaustive list of questions. You do not need to answer them all. You do not even need to use them. However, as young maturing adults, you should begin to develop your ideas/responses to them
Questions you may want to consider:
How does God interact with the world and us?
Does God control everything?
Does God know everything?
Is God everywhere?
How does God look (if God “looks”)?
Does the Jewish people have a special relationship with God?
Does the Torah come directly from God?
Does God really “mitzvah”/command us?
Does God hear and respond to prayer?
Does God supply reward and punishments?
"WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT GOD" Wordle: Create a Wordle that captures the depth and breadth of your beliefs about God. Your Wordle should include a minimum of 20 separate words/ideas. Following the following steps:
1) Read the assessment rubric that explains how your project will be evaluated.
2) Brainstorm your list of 20+ words that capture your God belief on a new document (once you ask wordle to create the puzzle, the list you put into the wordle box disappears, so you want to preserve it in a separate place).
3) Prioritize your terms a choose a clear top three (these are the three that you will post in the wordle box multiple times so that they appear larger than the rest - see further instructions for this below).
4) Open wordle, click on "create" and paste your list in the box (make sure to do your top three as necessary)
5) Edit the FONT, COLOR, and LAYOUT to match the spirit of your beliefs.
6) Make sure all three pieces of the project are complete and assemble your final "project" (see below).
Wordle Instructions:
Use this link to get to wordle .net. Choose a theme/design scheme for your wordle that you believe lines up with your God ideas (for example, if you tend toward the loving, caring, compassionate...you will choose a softer set of colors and design within wordle). You will need to screen capture/take a photo of your wordle so that you can save it and then create the final assignment for submission. I can give you instructions on how to do this if you do not know how. The shortcut to turn your mouse into a camera on a Mac is to press command-shift-4 and then you will see your arrow turn into a little camera. Highlight your wordle and then release. A Mac will automatically take a picture of the highlighted area and place the photo on your desktop. The application for this is called Grab. Windows-based OS's have a screenshot option as well.
TRICK ONE: One of the neat tricks within wordle is that it will print words in different sizes depending on how many times the word appears in your list. So, after you make your list, you must prioritize them. Choose your TOP THREE words/ideas/characteristics that really capture your God belief. Those are the words you will paste into the wordle box multiple times so that they appear larger in your final wordle. You can play with this tool to create small, medium, large words to express which terms are most important to your God belief.
TRICK TWO: If you have a term that is more than one word long, you can link them with a ~ (press shift and the button left of 1) so that wordle keeps them together and does not place them in two different places within the word puzzle.
The assignment to be turned in must contain three parts, pasted onto a sheet of the large-size construction paper or small poster board:
1) The image of your wordle
2) Your list of words or phrases (in case wordle plays with your phrases and puts the words spread throughout the image instead of all together, I have the list to double-check). PLEASE NUMBER THE LIST so it is easy for me to see how many how have.
3) An explanation that briefly clarifies your beliefs (why the big words are the biggest....etc.) and the reasons for your choice of font and color scheme.
I prefer that the wordle image be on top with the list beneath...ALL ON ONE PAGE PLEASE. Give your page a title and do not forget to include your name.
ASSIGNMENT 2: GOD LANGUAGE AS METAPHOR
We will explore the many names given to God in our tradition and discuss how they are the same and different. We will talk about what it means to describe God and give God a name and then choose the names for God that are most relevant and meaningful to us personally in relation to our God beliefs. We will have the opportunity to collect votes on the names that mean the most to us and then hold a debate regarding names over which there is conflict.
Click the link here to access the google doc to input your TOP 5 and BOTTOM 5 selections.
Tasks:
1) Post your Top and Bottom 5's with the code numbers (Number and Word) from the 104 List
2) In-class - Identify repeaters on each side
3) In-class - Identify "contradictors" between the two sides
4) Post a response to the question on the lino-board below. If it gets too crowded, 7A can navigate to the board on-line using the following URL. 7B can use this one. 7C is this one. If you are working straight from this wiki page, then 7A is the top one. 7B is the middle one and 7C the bottom one.
5) Prepare for the debate
Lesson 4
ASSIGNMENT 3: GOD IS LIKE This will be another exercise is exploring God language, God belief, and God's characteristics, but in a creative way. Each student will need to choose TV/radio advertising slogans that somehow reflect an aspect of your God belief. Remember, the slogan must capture or describe a characteristic of God. Some product/company slogans are fun and entertaining, but unless they say something about a belief you have about God, they will not be accepted. Each student must post in the shared google doc at least 3 "God is Like..." jingles on the day the assignment is due (check the homework page). We will share them in a whole group discussion. Please use the link below for some examples and to see how you need to format your submissions. Source:
ASSIGNMENT 4: GOD QUESTIONS
In preparation for watching the film, "Oh, God," it is important to bring our God questions to the surface. The movie does not attempt to answer all of questions, but it helps us to be able to think about them in new ways and to help us to be comfortable knowing that questions about God are legitimate and part of on-going religious life. We put many of our God questions on paper during class, but there are always more. Please use the link for your class and add any God questions you have to the lists that we have compiled. Please read through the questions before adding to make sure you are not repeating one that is already there.
FILM ACTIVE-WATCHING ASSIGNMENT:
In preparation for your end of unit assessment project, you have a task to undertake during your watching of the movie clips in class: make a list of the questions Jerry/others ask of "God." You will likely be using these questions later, so be attentive and make as complete a list as you can. We will watch the scenes you will need twice so that you have the opportunity to make a good list while we work in class. If you need more than two views of a scene to make sure your list is complete, you can use the links in the table above to watch a scene as many times as you need. As you watch the scenes, you may also want to take notes on the answers that "God" gives to Jerry's questions. The answers are not as important as the questions for your assignment later, but they could help. Again, you can watch a scene as many times as you want in order to take the best notes you can.
I will want to see the lists of questions you are creating as you watch the movies. Therefore, each of you MUST create a google doc and share it with me so that I can review your work. Set up your document with a section for each of the clips that we will watch in class. Clip 1-Clip 5. Then, you can list the questions and answers from each scene in an organized fashion. I will show you a sample in class before we start watching the movie clips.
END OF UNIT ASSESSMENT: YOUR INTERVIEW WITH GOD
After having watched the scenes of the interactions between "God" and Jerry and "God" in the courtroom, your assignment is the following:
You are screenwriter Larry Gelbart and director Carl Reiner, all rolled up into one person (you are VERY talented!!). Your task is to write and design a scene for an interview with God, questions and answers. While each of you will be responsible for writing your own script, you will be able to work in pairs to perform the final product. Your screenplay must contain the following:
1) Questions that you would want God to answer
2) Answers to the questions based on YOUR beliefs
3) How does the interview come to be? (Does God call you? Do you invite God and God actually shows up? Are you a news anchor interviewing God somehow? Are you Moses interviewing God at Mount Sinai?) It is totally up to you, but there must be a lead in to the interview, just as there was with the invitation that God sent to Jerry. One of the major criteria on which your script will be evaluated will be the depth of the issues that you tackle. These are some examples of subjects you should consider:
THE NATURE OF GOD:
Is God omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent?
GOD AND EVIL:
Do the bad things that happen in the world (remember that there is man-made evil and other kinds of tragedy) come from God?
Something from the Holocaust?
GOD AND HUMAN BEINGS:
What is the nature of the relationship between God and human beings?
How do God and human beings communicate with one another?
GOD AND TORAH/JEWISH LAW:
Is the Torah the exact and direct word of God?
What is the authority of Jewish law/the commandments in the life of a Jewish person?
You and your partner (randomly assigned by Rabbi Bellas) WILL actually have to create a movie based on your scripts. You will have to set up your set/stage (be simple...nothing fancy is expected), be in costume, and act out the parts. We will work out the details of making sure everyone has video recording devices, if that is necessary. The details of when and how you will film will be worked out later. You will play the role of God for the script that you write, while your partner will play the role of "Jerry."
BEFORE ANY RECORDING OF MOVIES CAN TAKE PLACE, I WILL REQUIRE EACH OF YOU TO SUBMIT A PROOFREAD AND EDITED SCRIPT FOR MY REVIEW. This requirement is for your benefit. It is to make sure that your script makes sense and contains all of the necessary elements for the project.
I will be distributing a rubric that will show you how this project will be graded. I will hand out a draft that we will review in class together. I will be open to input and feedback on the rubric when we review it in class, so that the expectations and criteria are clear to everyone.
While this is a project for a grade, the intention is for you to be able to have some real fun with the end of our God Talk unit. The subject matter is serious, but this is an opportunity for you let let your creativity and artistic abilities shine.
We Are "Yisra'el"
We begin thinking and asking questions about God beginning at a very young age, especially if we have been participants in religious education from that time in our lives. The Jewish people is known as Israel, "the God wrestlers," because belief in God and the maintenance of faith is not always easy. We learned last year in Humash that doubt in and rebellion against faith goes back as far as the beginning of our 4000 years. To become a fully mature adult Jew, one must continually wrestle with his or her belief and eventually come to an understanding of what one believes about God. Using a popular movie from the 1970's entitled Oh, God , this unit will undertake an exploration of our own questions about God, combined with our studies of the central prayer of the High Holy Day prayer services: ונתנה תוקף.Lesson 1
WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT GOD
Each student will write their own statement of personal theology. There are no right or wrong answers in this personal statement. It is an opportunity for you to think seriously about your God beliefs and to record them on paper. We will be referring back to this written statement several times over the course of the unit, which spans the entire school year. If you need inspiration for how to start or for what to say, you may use the questions below. By no means is it an exhaustive list of questions. You do not need to answer them all. You do not even need to use them. However, as young maturing adults, you should begin to develop your ideas/responses to themQuestions you may want to consider:
How does God interact with the world and us?
Does God control everything?
Does God know everything?
Is God everywhere?
How does God look (if God “looks”)?
Does the Jewish people have a special relationship with God?
Does the Torah come directly from God?
Does God really “mitzvah”/command us?
Does God hear and respond to prayer?
Does God supply reward and punishments?
Link to Processing Lesson 1
Lesson 2
"WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT GOD" Wordle: Create a Wordle that captures the depth and breadth of your beliefs about God. Your Wordle should include a minimum of 20 separate words/ideas. Following the following steps:1) Read the assessment rubric that explains how your project will be evaluated.
2) Brainstorm your list of 20+ words that capture your God belief on a new document (once you ask wordle to create the puzzle, the list you put into the wordle box disappears, so you want to preserve it in a separate place).
3) Prioritize your terms a choose a clear top three (these are the three that you will post in the wordle box multiple times so that they appear larger than the rest - see further instructions for this below).
4) Open wordle, click on "create" and paste your list in the box (make sure to do your top three as necessary)
5) Edit the FONT, COLOR, and LAYOUT to match the spirit of your beliefs.
6) Make sure all three pieces of the project are complete and assemble your final "project" (see below).
Wordle Instructions:
Use this link to get to wordle .net. Choose a theme/design scheme for your wordle that you believe lines up with your God ideas (for example, if you tend toward the loving, caring, compassionate...you will choose a softer set of colors and design within wordle). You will need to screen capture/take a photo of your wordle so that you can save it and then create the final assignment for submission. I can give you instructions on how to do this if you do not know how. The shortcut to turn your mouse into a camera on a Mac is to press command-shift-4 and then you will see your arrow turn into a little camera. Highlight your wordle and then release. A Mac will automatically take a picture of the highlighted area and place the photo on your desktop. The application for this is called Grab. Windows-based OS's have a screenshot option as well.
TRICK ONE: One of the neat tricks within wordle is that it will print words in different sizes depending on how many times the word appears in your list. So, after you make your list, you must prioritize them. Choose your TOP THREE words/ideas/characteristics that really capture your God belief. Those are the words you will paste into the wordle box multiple times so that they appear larger in your final wordle. You can play with this tool to create small, medium, large words to express which terms are most important to your God belief.
TRICK TWO: If you have a term that is more than one word long, you can link them with a ~ (press shift and the button left of 1) so that wordle keeps them together and does not place them in two different places within the word puzzle.
The assignment to be turned in must contain three parts, pasted onto a sheet of the large-size construction paper or small poster board:
1) The image of your wordle
2) Your list of words or phrases (in case wordle plays with your phrases and puts the words spread throughout the image instead of all together, I have the list to double-check). PLEASE NUMBER THE LIST so it is easy for me to see how many how have.
3) An explanation that briefly clarifies your beliefs (why the big words are the biggest....etc.) and the reasons for your choice of font and color scheme.
I prefer that the wordle image be on top with the list beneath...ALL ON ONE PAGE PLEASE. Give your page a title and do not forget to include your name.
Grading Rubric for the Wordle Assignment: CLICK THIS LINK
Lesson 3
ASSIGNMENT 2: GOD LANGUAGE AS METAPHORWe will explore the many names given to God in our tradition and discuss how they are the same and different. We will talk about what it means to describe God and give God a name and then choose the names for God that are most relevant and meaningful to us personally in relation to our God beliefs. We will have the opportunity to collect votes on the names that mean the most to us and then hold a debate regarding names over which there is conflict.
Source:
Click the link here to access the google doc to input your TOP 5 and BOTTOM 5 selections.
Tasks:
1) Post your Top and Bottom 5's with the code numbers (Number and Word) from the 104 List
2) In-class - Identify repeaters on each side
3) In-class - Identify "contradictors" between the two sides
4) Post a response to the question on the lino-board below. If it gets too crowded, 7A can navigate to the board on-line using the following URL. 7B can use this one. 7C is this one. If you are working straight from this wiki page, then 7A is the top one. 7B is the middle one and 7C the bottom one.
5) Prepare for the debate
Lesson 4
ASSIGNMENT 3: GOD IS LIKEThis will be another exercise is exploring God language, God belief, and God's characteristics, but in a creative way. Each student will need to choose TV/radio advertising slogans that somehow reflect an aspect of your God belief. Remember, the slogan must capture or describe a characteristic of God. Some product/company slogans are fun and entertaining, but unless they say something about a belief you have about God, they will not be accepted. Each student must post in the shared google doc at least 3 "God is Like..." jingles on the day the assignment is due (check the homework page). We will share them in a whole group discussion. Please use the link below for some examples and to see how you need to format your submissions.
Source:
Here are some links to popular slogans on the web:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apple_Inc._slogans
http://www.textart.ru/database/english-advertising-slogans/car-brand-advertising-slogans.htmlhttp://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Advertising_slogans
http://adage.com/century/campaigns.html
http://www.thinkslogans.com/slogans/advertising-slogans/http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/77-catchy-and-creative-slogans/
God is Like Table Link
ASSIGNMENT 4: GOD QUESTIONS
In preparation for watching the film, "Oh, God," it is important to bring our God questions to the surface. The movie does not attempt to answer all of questions, but it helps us to be able to think about them in new ways and to help us to be comfortable knowing that questions about God are legitimate and part of on-going religious life. We put many of our God questions on paper during class, but there are always more. Please use the link for your class and add any God questions you have to the lists that we have compiled. Please read through the questions before adding to make sure you are not repeating one that is already there.
7A: God questions
7B: God questions
ASSIGNMENT 5: Oh, God The Movie
FILM ACTIVE-WATCHING ASSIGNMENT:In preparation for your end of unit assessment project, you have a task to undertake during your watching of the movie clips in class: make a list of the questions Jerry/others ask of "God." You will likely be using these questions later, so be attentive and make as complete a list as you can. We will watch the scenes you will need twice so that you have the opportunity to make a good list while we work in class. If you need more than two views of a scene to make sure your list is complete, you can use the links in the table above to watch a scene as many times as you need. As you watch the scenes, you may also want to take notes on the answers that "God" gives to Jerry's questions. The answers are not as important as the questions for your assignment later, but they could help. Again, you can watch a scene as many times as you want in order to take the best notes you can.
I will want to see the lists of questions you are creating as you watch the movies. Therefore, each of you MUST create a google doc and share it with me so that I can review your work. Set up your document with a section for each of the clips that we will watch in class. Clip 1-Clip 5. Then, you can list the questions and answers from each scene in an organized fashion. I will show you a sample in class before we start watching the movie clips.
END OF UNIT ASSESSMENT: YOUR INTERVIEW WITH GOD
After having watched the scenes of the interactions between "God" and Jerry and "God" in the courtroom, your assignment is the following:
You are screenwriter Larry Gelbart and director Carl Reiner, all rolled up into one person (you are VERY talented!!). Your task is to write and design a scene for an interview with God, questions and answers. While each of you will be responsible for writing your own script, you will be able to work in pairs to perform the final product. Your screenplay must contain the following:
1) Questions that you would want God to answer
2) Answers to the questions based on YOUR beliefs
3) How does the interview come to be? (Does God call you? Do you invite God and God actually shows up? Are you a news anchor interviewing God somehow? Are you Moses interviewing God at Mount Sinai?) It is totally up to you, but there must be a lead in to the interview, just as there was with the invitation that God sent to Jerry.
One of the major criteria on which your script will be evaluated will be the depth of the issues that you tackle. These are some examples of subjects you should consider:
THE NATURE OF GOD:
Is God omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent?
GOD AND EVIL:
Do the bad things that happen in the world (remember that there is man-made evil and other kinds of tragedy) come from God?
Something from the Holocaust?
GOD AND HUMAN BEINGS:
What is the nature of the relationship between God and human beings?
How do God and human beings communicate with one another?
GOD AND TORAH/JEWISH LAW:
Is the Torah the exact and direct word of God?
What is the authority of Jewish law/the commandments in the life of a Jewish person?
You and your partner (randomly assigned by Rabbi Bellas) WILL actually have to create a movie based on your scripts. You will have to set up your set/stage (be simple...nothing fancy is expected), be in costume, and act out the parts. We will work out the details of making sure everyone has video recording devices, if that is necessary. The details of when and how you will film will be worked out later. You will play the role of God for the script that you write, while your partner will play the role of "Jerry."
BEFORE ANY RECORDING OF MOVIES CAN TAKE PLACE, I WILL REQUIRE EACH OF YOU TO SUBMIT A PROOFREAD AND EDITED SCRIPT FOR MY REVIEW. This requirement is for your benefit. It is to make sure that your script makes sense and contains all of the necessary elements for the project.
I will be distributing a rubric that will show you how this project will be graded. I will hand out a draft that we will review in class together. I will be open to input and feedback on the rubric when we review it in class, so that the expectations and criteria are clear to everyone.
While this is a project for a grade, the intention is for you to be able to have some real fun with the end of our God Talk unit. The subject matter is serious, but this is an opportunity for you let let your creativity and artistic abilities shine.
Good luck!